The authors of this dual memoir are second-generation Holocaust survivors. They did not live through the trauma of the Holocaust, they inherited it. Whether survivor-parents revealed what they endured or erected barriers of silence, the horrors they experienced permeated the lives of their children.
Aron Hirt-Manheimer and Marty Yura grew up in the close-knit community of Yiddish-speaking refugees in America. After meeting in Los Angeles as high school students, the two became fast friends with much in common including the fact that they were both conceived in the same displaced persons camp in US-occupied Germany.
This memoir traces their colorful growing-up adventures through fast-paced alternating passages. Though the Holocaust formed the backdrop of their lives, they didn’t talk much about it—until, as older adults, they embraced the imperative to bear witness. They set out to discover everything they could about what happened to their parents and other relatives in Poland during World War II.
For Aron, the most powerful revelations were contained in a nearly forgotten memoir written by his uncle fifty years earlier in Argentina. Marty’s breakthrough came after participating in a Zen Peacemakers immersion retreat on the killing fields of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Navigating through this haunted terrain together, the friends realized that the love they inherited from their parents transcends the trauma. Their joint memoir attests to a legacy of love against hate.
SONS OF SURVIVORS
Aron Hirt-Manheimer, born in the Feldafing D.P. Camp, U.S. Zone,-Occupied Germany, emigrated with his family to the U.S. when he was three to Cleveland, Ohio. He later moved to Los Angeles in 1960, receiving his BA in psychology from UCLA (1970) and an MA in Jewish education (1976) from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. From 1976 to 2014 Aron served as editor of Reform Judaism magazine (Union for Reform Judaism) and as URJ editor-at-large until 2021. He co-edited Against Silence: The Voice and Vision of Elie Wiesel and co-authored Jagendorf’s Foundry: Memoir of the Romanian Holocaust, 1941 1944. He is also coauthor with Arthur Hertzberg of Jews: The Essence and Character of a People. Aron lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut with his wife of 51 years, Judy.
Marty Yura was also conceived in the Feldafing D.P. camp and born after his family arrived in New York. Growing up in the Bronx he relocated at age sixteen with his family to Los Angeles and graduated from UCLA with a BA in psychology in 1970. He immigrated to Israel, and was inducted into the Israel Defense Forces and served as an officer and a field psychologist in an infantry brigade at the time of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. On completion of his military service, Marty returned to the U.S. and completed his MA in psychology at California State University – Los Angeles (1976). He worked as a management consultant, headed a computer-based learning company, and worked in the financial services industry for over thirty years In 2009, he and his wife, Marti, co-founded Vista Yoga, where they teach yoga and meditation, including a yoga program for veterans with PTSD at Emory Healthcare Marty and his wife of forty years live in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Yael Danieli, Foreword contributor, is a world-famous clinical psychologist, a renowned victimologist, traumatologist, and the Director and co-founder of the Group Project for Holocaust Survivors and their Children (1975) in the New York City area. She has done extensive psychotherapeutic work with survivors and offspring of survivors and has studied their post-war responses, attitudes and the impact the Holocaust has had on their lives. In the last decade, she has created the Danieli Inventory for Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma that allows scientifically valid assessment and comparative international study of this phenomena. Most recently she has founded the International Center for the Study, Prevention and Treatment of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma: www.icmglt.org
“Two sons of Holocaust survivors, conceived in the same Displaced Persons camp, recount the arc of their converging and diverging lives, and how they reconnected. A memorable contribution to post-war American Jewish history and to the literature on inherited trauma.”-- Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University
“SONS OF SURVIVORS: Making Peace with Inherited Trauma testifies to the continuing trauma of the Holocaust eighty years after the Holocaust….The authors work through their traumatic legacy seeking to transform the sheer evil of Nazism into a two-fold challenge for Jews and non-Jews alike: How can love prevail against hate? and, How can the lessons of the Holocaust serve as a stimulus to achieve a tikkun (repair) of the world?"—Alan Berger, Raddock Family Eminent Scholar Chair in Holocaust Studies, Director, Center for the Study of Values and Violence after Auschwitz, Florida Atlantic University,
At a moment when the Holocaust stakes a fresh claim on contemporary life, Sons of Survivors offers fresh insights on the story that continues to shape our lives. Mixing personal friendship, family history, and profound insights on inherited trauma ---This book will inspire many meaningful conversations.”—Bruce Feiler, NY Times bestselling author of Walking The Bible
“Aron is a writer possessed of his own special voice. The result is a rare blend of integrity, persuasiveness, and good literary sense.”-Elie Wiesel, author of Night and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
“A remarkable tale of inter-generational karma, alternately courageous and tender, painful and promising, a story of historical reckoning. For all seekers on a quest for spiritual identity, this is a book of enduring hope, a profound testament to how shared memory is vital to healing.” --Tias Little, author of Yoga of the Subtle Body
“This strange and haunting dual memoir captures the legacy of the Holocaust and how it carries its ache down through generations. A gorgeous piece of work, it will give insight to anyone who wants to understand what was lost in the nightmare course of the twentieth century. And what was saved.”--Rich Cohen, author of Tough Jews and The Fish That Ate the Whale,
“Making peace with intergenerational legacies of trauma involves a continuous unraveling and acceptance of unbearable memories, emotions, and choices while moving toward liberation and self-actualization. This is what the authors do as they navigate their quest to better understand how the Holocaust impacted their identities and relationships…. to undo and repair the past and heal the world for their parents and themselves.” --Dr. Yael Danieli, From The Foreword